Studio Calico March - Quilting Bee

It's up! Time to race to the shop and load your carts with the March kit from Studio Calico.




This is what I came up with. I bought all three add-ons this month.



First, a fun thing the team did this month was to lift a layout in the gallery from one of our members. My sweet friend Dani has been sharing her work at SC, so she was an easy choice for someone to lift. I have had her Lolli Love layout in my favorites for a bit. I just adore the way she layered that crepe paper ribbon. So easy and effective! I *almost* asked if I could lift Everyday, but decided to get creative, as we didn't have crepe paper ribbon in the kit this month.

You'll notice the pink JBS paper is very textured.

To do that was simple. First, I chose the Jenni Bowlin paper because it isn't cardstock weight, and therefore easy to mess with. To make it look this was was simple. I trimmed the paper into strips. And then I ran them under the faucet, scrunched them up, and then flattened them back out again. When they dried they were warped and crinkly, just like crepe paper.

I then layered them just as Dani did, and sewed them down. I chose to layer mine on patterned paper and then adhere that to kraft, because I needed some of my plain in this layout, lol. The colors and patterns on their own were scaring me a bit.

To mimic Dani's journaling box, I used one of the super cool veneer circles, and then added some green stars made with the medium star punch from Fiskars.

Voila!

Do your kids have Twinkletoes from Skechers? Mine are obsessed with them. I admit, I think they are super cool too, and wish they also came in my size. Alas......

On to the second layout:

I think Becky Fleck changed me forever with regards to my two pagers. I don't know. When trying to come up with a design with these photos, I was really inspired by how she did her journaling box on her January sketch for my Project 12 challenge, so I decided to incorporate something similar with this layout. It worked perfectly with my photos.

I loved the great big flowers so decided to use them on this layout. It's a bit of a play on words, really. The title is "at her own pace" and Payton can sometimes be one of those who likes to "stop and smell the roses". Makes sense, huh, huh?

The polka dots on my butterflies was easy. First I sprayed the chipboard with creme mist. Then I took a scrap piece of cardstock, punched holes in it, and layered it over the butterfly, after which I sprayed it with pink mist. Have a wee bit of fun with my mists there.

I also used two of the stamps in the kit. Isn't that trike adorable? I had to go with pink to match Payton's pink bike in the layout (the frame is in the wedding ring add-on, the bike is in the honeycomb add-on).

I'm proud of myself and my use of white space on this one. I could have gone with more patterned paper, but I held myself back!

I decided to go pretty and 8.5 x 11 with my last layout of the month.

The AC ribbon was already ruffled a bit, but I ruffled it some more and used two rows of it on my layout for some fun texture.

The rose ribbon is pretty, and I wanted to do something besides lay it across my layout. One of the smaller veneer circles worked perfectly as a frame, so I trimmed out one bloom and added some leaf pins.

My photo is what I'm most excited about. That's printable fabric! I'm hoping to get some added to the shop at SC. I distressed it a bit so that it was more obvious that it was fabric. LOVE how it turned out.

That's it for layouts this month. I just ran out of time.

I did have one more project with the kit this month. Here's my baby, the Patchwork add-on.

This features delicious Nicey Jane fabric from Heather Bailey as well as canvas pendants from Maya Road and delicious vintage style buttons from Jenni Bowlin. SO fun.

Another fun thing about this project kit is the photo transfer paper, as well as the additional canvas. There's so much of it that after finishing my banner, I still have plenty of product to use on another project that I'll share with you soon. I just need to add a Lizzy flower or two (they weren't at SC headquarters when the DT boxes were ready to ship so I've had to be patient and wait until my next shipment to get them).

This project kit also contains photos and instructions to recreate this banner:

There were a couple of fun flowers made with fabric for this project, so the instructions for these will be fun to have on hand as well.

On top of another assignment or two, this is why I've been so busy! It's a lot of work to know what you are going to do in advance, so that you can document the process with photos and words. In the daylight. :)

Additional product I purchased to make this banner extra special were:

the I top tool (and this tool has paid for itself already with the use it has gotten, especially with fabrips! I can't wait to share the layout I'm working on right now that has fabrip brads).

medium brad daddies

hydrangea mist

pinking shears

You will still be able to create a beautiful banner with the project kit if you do not have these items, but I used them and had a lot of fun with them so I thought I would let you know what I picked up.

As I mentioned, there is photo transfer paper in this kit. At first, I had a hard time deciding what type of photos to use with it. Baby photos? Favorite photos? The photos Steve took of me with the girls? In the end I decided to channel my inner Jenni Bowlin, and I took photos of my favorite old things/ junk around the house so that I could have a vintage style banner for my scrapbook room. I have a photo of an old milk can, a Coca Cola crate, my favorite rooster salt and pepper shakers, and some blue Ball jars. It was fun to explore the house for junk to photograph. I wanted to use a window and some of my old suitcases, but having to trim the pendant in a triangular shape limited the way I could photograph my subjects, so I had to pick and choose.

If you pick up this add-on and have any questions creating your projects, please let me know! AND be sure to share your finished projects by linking me here or loading them to the gallery at Studio Calico. I'd love to see!

Have a great night! Davinie